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The Adidas contract was basically a long-term meal ticket. As long as the sales data during the endorsement period wasn't too ugly, it could be renewed indefinitely.
Leon didn't have many excessive thoughts about the sales prospects of the Leezy shoe series for now.
Just the 9 million dollars one-time payment was enough to satisfy him.
He didn't have Kanye's wild ambition to make a fortune using the sneaker business.
According to market trends, singers' ability to drive sales for such products was far inferior to sports stars.
Unexpectedly, instead of holding a grudge against Leon for this matter, Kanye West gained a trace of respect for him.
This respect didn't come from the streets, but was directed at talent.
He often called to inquire about thoughts on design concepts, and incidentally reported on Diddy's movements.
Diddy's revenge action against Lil Durk had already begun in secret.
Leon wasn't surprised by this.
For a rapper, street reputation meant traffic, money, respect...
Swallowing broken teeth (suffering in silence) was the most intolerable thing for a rapper.
Even if Diddy was already a billionaire mingling in high society.
Three days later, inside the Apocalypse Music office.
Bonnie knocked on the door of Leon's office. "Hey, wake up, BOSS!"
Leon woke up bleary-eyed, rubbing his eyes while cursing, "Bonnie, don't you know it's lunch break now?"
He yawned and stretched, looking listless.
Bonnie bent down to hand over a cup of coffee, then tidied up the messy documents and newspapers on the desk.
Unknown if intentional or to refresh the boss...
The spring scenery hidden under the pencil skirt was faintly visible, more stimulating than any coffee.
"The weather is getting hot after all..." Leon took a sip of coffee. "Did something happen?"
Without saying a word, Bonnie went to the computer.
Opened the search box and typed a paragraph of text, and a news report began to play:
"At 10 AM today, a shooting occurred near an apartment in O-Block, Chicago. Young rapper King Von was shot in this incident."
"This is the fourth shooting in O-Block this month, three of which were allegedly involving King Von... the police have launched an investigation."
Leon narrowed his eyes and listened to the end, without a trace of expression throughout.
"That's it?"
"You don't care at all?" Bonnie sighed. "Discussion in online communities is now divided into two camps. One believes this is Diddy's revenge, the other believes..."
"Go on."
Bonnie paused for two seconds and continued, "The other camp believes you want to silence them to clear your relationship with the Diddy shooting incident..."
Leon didn't know whether to laugh or cry; these fans really treated him like a Mafia boss.
"Is this kind of thing worth making a fuss about?" Leon said with a smile. "Even if that group of punks in Chicago gets wiped out, it's nothing; it has no impact on me."
"You don't care at all?"
"Even the police don't care, what is there for me to care about?" Leon spread his hands.
He currently had absolutely no time to care about the life and death of two nggas.
Bang Bang had just been released and was in a critical promotion period.
Even Diva-level figures like Beyoncé and Taylor were running around for promotion.
Both Columbia Records and Big Machine Records had great ambitions for this single—taking the top spot on Billboard.
In ten days, Leon also had to attend the Billboard Music Awards ceremony;
At the end of the month was the premiere of Straight Outta Compton.
Even more headache-inducing was that JAY-Z was pressing hard on the contract renewal negotiations.
In this situation, although he verbally agreed to sign Lil Durk and King Von, he really had no time to attend to these two little blacks.
He could only pray that they could survive round after round of street revenge and finally be lucky enough to get a debut ticket.
But soon Bonnie's response made Leon nervous:
"Cardi B is promoting her new song in Chicago."
"WTF..." Before Bonnie could finish, Leon sensed something was wrong.
This crazy girl was always inseparable from various troubles.
Even though she was already a nationally known rapper, she never cared about her dignity and actively participated in various community disputes.
Last month, photos of her chasing her brother-in-law with a gun on the streets of the Bronx trended.
Her brother-in-law was forced to run wild on the street wearing only underwear.
Finally, he had to kneel on the ground and beg for mercy.
The reason was being caught cheating on the spot by Cardi's sister.
Dramatic events like this never ceased with her.
"Don't tell me Cardi is involved in this matter." Leon frowned tightly.
"If she wasn't involved, I wouldn't tell you." Bonnie sighed. "She moved into King Von's apartment after her tour in Chicago ended. She was also at the scene of the shooting this morning..."
"Shxt!" Leon was so angry he almost threw his cup. "Why didn't this crazy girl tell me about this?"
"She wants to solve it in her own way, you know." Bonnie spread her hands.
As the most chaotic and poor neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago, O-Block blacks lived in mixed conditions for a long time.
It wasn't uncommon for ten people to live in a 500-square-foot apartment.
Here, nothing couldn't be shared, including women.
Thinking that Cardi might contract some strange viruses, Leon secretly rejoiced that he hadn't had anything happen with this black girl for a long time.
Most crucially, the promotion of Bang Bang was currently at an extremely critical moment, and Cardi was one of the lead singers of this song.
If she was killed in a street conflict, Bang Bang could be declared admitted to the ICU just after being born.
"Does this crazy girl know what she's doing?" Leon slapped his head.
"Sounds like she's dating King Von." Bonnie said. "Phil already advised her, but she won't listen at all."
"She said this is a means of hyping up heat, all learned from you."
Leon had a big confused look on his face.
He did like using street conflicts to create hot spots, but he would never actively stick himself onto an opponent's gun muzzle.
"Tell this horny black girl to get her ass back from Chicago immediately... I mean immediately..."
What Leon absolutely didn't expect was that Cardi did bring him a surprise.
The originally divided rap groups, big and small, in the South Side of Chicago became unprecedentedly united, standing firmly on Leon's side in the East Coast vs. West Coast Beef.
Now, "Street Jesus" had become a street faith in the South Side of Chicago.
Graffiti about him could be seen everywhere in those dirty and chaotic neighborhoods.
As for how Cardi achieved this, whether she used street means or magic in bed, he didn't know.
A week later, the sales data for Bang Bang came out fresh, causing a shock in the industry.
First-week physical sales exceeded 400,000 copies, and streaming copies reached 600,000.
Excluding albums, this single was the record with the most eye-catching sales since the beginning of 2011.
"We did it, results speak for everything, we are a top team!" At the celebration party that night, Phil grabbed a wine glass. "We pulled that fat girl off the throne! Incredible!"
The fat girl Phil mentioned was Adele.
Since the album 21 was released in North America at the beginning of the year, it had slaughtered various charts including Billboard.
It was still dominating the Billboard 200 album chart to date.
The lead single Rolling in the Deep had topped the Billboard Hot 100 for seven consecutive weeks.
And the sudden emergence of Bang Bang broke the monopoly of this "British Queen," airborne to the number one spot on Billboard!
"Boss, maybe we should take this opportunity to increase overseas distribution." Sales Director Rubio suggested.
Bang Bang not only broke Adele's dominance in the US.
It reached the top of the charts in eight other countries including the UK, France, and Australia.
But the idea of increasing overseas distribution was immediately rejected by Leon.
The emergence of the Internet completely changed the landscape of the record industry.
Now, most overseas listeners chose streaming media to pay for music products.
You couldn't expect an album sold for $7 in the US to sell at the original price in third-world countries.
Plus the impact of piracy and rising printing costs, overseas distribution in most cases just earned licensing fees.
"Congratulations kid~" Phil walked to Leon with a wine glass. "Can't believe you reached such heights in less than a year..."
"I'm just the producer; you have to thank Cardi's excellent performance."
When saying the word "excellent," he deliberately emphasized the volume.
On the second day after Cardi returned from Chicago to New York, one of King Von's gang members died by gunpoint.
Even so, Diddy's revenge still wouldn't stop.
A billionaire bitten by a group of bugs, his counterattack was naturally to wipe out the group of bugs.
"I'm not just talking about this song." Phil explained: "According to the news I got from Nielsen Company, your data for the Billboard Top Radio Artist is slightly ahead of Rihanna... maybe you can really defeat that Caribbean black girl against the odds."
Leon didn't show any excessive desire for awards.
Best to have, doesn't matter if not.
The most important thing was to put money in the purse.
Anyway, being able to defeat the two radio queens, Rihanna and Lady Gaga, in the competition for Top Radio Artist was something to be happy about.
This meant he had harvested at both the Grammy and Billboard awards.
Plus super high traffic and impressive record sales data, he could completely establish his position as a first-line superstar.
"Cheers everyone~" Leon grabbed the glass and downed half a glass of whiskey in one go.
Usually, he was quite restrained about drinking, but today was definitely an exception.
The work he participated in producing got the Billboard number one single for the first time; any celebration was worth it.
The entire Apocalypse Music company had been decorated into a wild party scene.
All employees of the company, including Jorge and T-ray, joined this carnival.
After a large mouthful of strong liquor, Leon immediately felt dizzy.
He had already drunk quite a lot.
Ariana supported his arm, frowning and whispering, "Hey... you drank a bit too much."
"No, I'm very sober now." Leon's arm naturally wrapped around her slender waist. "I'm more sober than ever."
The moment of contact, Ariana's body trembled slightly but didn't resist.
It was the first time she had seen Leon in this state.
"Shxt~ It's fine that you guy are so greedy for money, why are you like this for women too?" T-ray heckled.
There were quite a few girls at the scene, but none he dared to mess with.
Bonnie was Leon's personal assistant.
Aisha had a mysterious Mexican gang background, which was known to everyone in the company.
As for Cardi B, although she never stingy about showing off her twerking to everyone, T-ray didn't even have the courage to approach.
He still couldn't forget the scene of being clamped by Cardi's head and attacked with biochemical weapons on the streets of Brownsville.
Perhaps tasting the sweetness of money, or perhaps ingesting too much alcohol...
T-ray looked very abnormal.
He actually hugged Phil, the enemy who backstabbed him, intimately face to face for the first time.
The two shouted loudly at the same time: "Fxxk, we ruled New York today! We need girls!"
Their voices grew louder and louder, and those employees who usually looked dull and honest also joined in the heckling:
"We want girls! Mexican girls!"
"Wait, Japanese girls are also nice!"
"Fxxking Brazilian girls are the best!!"
The atmosphere was set, and as the boss, Leon had to compromise.
"Satisfy you~" He took out his phone and dialed a mysterious number. "Tonight, turn this place into a jungle!"
"Yeah!"
"Leon! Leon! Leon!"
The office boiled instantly, everyone chanting his name.
Half an hour later, a group of scantily clad young women walked in.
The office became livelier than a midnight club.
Women of different skin colors, different beliefs, different heights and sizes filled the place.
The complexity of races made this place look like Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings.
Ariana watched this scene dumbfounded, especially after noticing Leon's gaze scanning these women.
She pouted angrily.
She tried hard to puff out her chest and tugged at Leon's arm.
Leon understood tacitly, "You still have room for development..."
Ariana blushed with shame, subconsciously taking a large sip of wine.
Immediately choked and coughed, her pretty face turning even redder.
Leon laughed while petting her head dotingly.
The carnival lasted until midnight, not only showing no signs of ending but reaching its climax.
T-ray hugged left and right, taking the two most voluptuous Brazilian girls, weighing over 150 pounds, to an office next door.
Phil was dead drunk but still pouring alcohol into his mouth.
Occasionally making muttering sounds, cursing the world.
"Fxxk... this country has changed, turned into a paradise for madmen, villains, thieves..."
"Our values are being destroyed, our wealth is being plundered..."
"Give me a chance to be young again, I'll take a double-barreled shotgun and blow up those freaks with colored hair wearing women's clothes..."
Under the shroud of the carnival atmosphere, no one wanted to listen to the old geezer's complaints.
They also deliberately avoided the old geezer when clinking glasses.
To prevent accidents, letting him drink himself to see God on the spot.
Although Ariana was very restrained about alcohol intake, after several hours of partying, she was also tipsy.
"I can't hold on anymore..." She bent down to take off her pinching high heels, stepping barefoot on the floor.
Walking straight to the jukebox.
"What is Little A doing?" Leon stared at her in confusion.
Soon, a melody full of Latin flavor rang out—
Senorita.
Ariana walked over with a microphone.
Leon understood and quipped, "Our performance charges a fee."
"Are you joining or not?" Ariana pouted and rolled her eyes.
"Why not?"
I love it when you call me señorita
I wish I could pretend I didn't need ya
But every touch is ooh la la la
It's true la la la
The moment the singing started, everyone stopped what they were doing, quietly appreciating the live performance of the two stars.
Ariana's body pressed tightly against Leon, the two exchanging hot breaths.
When the last note ended, she threw down the microphone and jumped into Leon's arms.
Although she only weighed a bit over 100 pounds, the drunk Leon still stumbled and almost didn't catch her steadily.
He felt Ariana's hot breath invading his cochlea, "Want to come to my place..."
"I feel my body burning up..."